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Closed-list system may give PDI-P edge over rivals
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Making the right choice: A man cycles past a board listing Malang Council candidates in front of the election commission’s offices in Malang, East Java, in this file photo from 2019. (JP/Aman Rochman)
An upcoming Constitutional Court ruling on the legislative election system could be a game changer for 2024, with the country’s biggest party the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) poised to gain the most should the court rule in its favor.
The court is reviewing a petition filed by a PDI-P member and several other plaintiffs that seeks to restore a closed-list system for the legislative elections, in which voters solely vote for parties that in turn exclusively decide the winning candidates proportionate to the number of votes won. If granted, this would be a departure from the prevailing system, which allows voters to choose among legislative candidates on open-list ballots.
Bawono Kumoro of pollster Indikator Politik Indonesia told The Jakarta Post that a return to the closed-list system could give the PDI-P, of which President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo is a member, an edge over its rivals in the upcoming legislative race.
A December public opinion poll by Indikator Politik showed that the PDI-P cemented its lead with 25.7 percent of the vote, with the Golkar Party and Gerindra Party trailing behind with 10.5 percent and 9.5 percent, respectively. The PDI-P has remained at the top of the polls since the 2019 election, standing at between 23 and 29 percent, higher than the 19 percent of the vote the party gained in the last election.
"The PDI-P has the most loyal voter base compared with others and has consistently gained a comfortable lead over its rivals," Bawono said. "With other parties mostly relying on popular or public figures to attract more votes, they will find it difficult to beat the PDI-P in a closed-list system with less than one year left to the elections."
A closed-list system would undermine smaller or even medium-sized parties, Bawono added, as an open-list system helped these parties to boost their electability by putting up legislative candidates with strong appeal to their respective constituencies.
“If we are looking at other parties, such as medium-sized parties like the NasDem Party and even smaller parties like PAN [National Mandate Party], they have mostly relied on popular or public figures to attract more votes. In a closed-list system, the public may have less interest in voting for such parties,” Bawono said.
